Western Union has formally responded to statements suggesting it is taking concrete steps toward using distributed ledger technologies via a partnership with Ripple Labs.

Long cited as a technology that could enable more cost-effective cross-border payments, Western Union has, as commentators have noted, what is perhaps one of the more evident vested interests in exploring digital currency offerings.

Still, representatives for the Colorado-based company remain tight-lipped about what the proposed project with Ripple Labs would entail.

The Chamber of Digital Commerce will hold a two-day anti-money laundering (AML) compliance boot camp for bankers, regulators and digital currency companies. The event will be in New York City from April 30 to May 1, with an optional workshop on May 2.

The topic of compliance and regulations is a tough one for Bitcoin companies. AML Know-Your-Customer and OFAC regulations are difficult for large and established companies, as seen recently when PayPal was fined $7 million by the U.S. Treasury Department for processing illegal transactions from blacklisted persons.

According to the president of the Chamber of Digital Commerce, Perianne Boring, AML can be one of the most complex and difficult laws to be compliant with. And for a startup with little capital, a small staff, and little knowledge of the regulations it can be extremely difficult. When you add the nascent state of digital currency regulations on top of that, it can seem overwhelming.

The United States has been particularly difficult when it comes to regulations. The infamous New York BitLicense proposal, which is a proposed special license for digital currency companies in New York State, is set to be finalized “soon,” but an exact date has not been given. Analysts anticipate that the regulation could set a standard for Bitcoin regulations across the United States and possibly in other countries.

Connecting Digital Currency Companies, Bankers and Regulators

The boot camp is one of the few opportunities to learn about proper AML compliance for Bitcoin companies. It also is an opportunity for Bitcoin companies to meet with bankers and regulators, groups usually outside of the networks of most most companies in the Bitcoin community.

According to Carol Van Cleef, a partner at Manatt, Phelps & Phillips and the creator of the boot camp, the event is designed to bring together the various groups.

“A truly effective AML program cannot be developed in a bubble,” Van Cleef said. “And we know that one the biggest benefit for companies attending these programs is meeting the regulators, bankers and law enforcement also attending.”

“There aren’t many opportunities for these parties to get together and meet each other in a collaborative environment. Connecting in small working groups at boot camp helps both sides gain a better understanding of what the other has on their plate.”

Van Cleef knows what she is talking about when it comes to regulatory boot camps. She started the first AML compliance boot camp in 2005 to help the traditional banking industry comply with the Bank Secrecy Act and additional regulatory requirements emerging from the USA Patriot Act passed after 9/11.

According to Van Cleef, many banks and financial institutions were struggling at the time to understand what these laws and regulations required them to do. Banks were increasingly concerned as they watched more and more enforcement actions and civil money penalties being imposed for lax compliance. Van Cleef sees a very similar phenomenon happening within the digital currency industry which is why she thinks this boot camp is critically important for the young industry.

“New regulatory requirements can seem overwhelming and even somewhat distant, leaving many companies in the affected industries not interested in compliance. The bootcamp is not just a way to learn how to be compliant but also meet the people who work with the regulations every day.”

Regulatory Crash Course

The event is ideal not only for bitcoin startups just starting to build their AML programs but also for companies with established programs to both benchmark their efforts against others and fine tune their process. During the two day course, Van Cleef and the other course instructor, Maureen Sanders Piccillo, who is a former US Internal Revenue Service’s National AML Program Manager (the unit that examines digital currency companies for compliance with the BSA), will work with exercises that teach participants the necessities of an AML program.

There will also be an optional third day, which will be an AML program drafting workshop. According to Van Cleef, participants learn so much in the first days that they are unsure where to start, but the workshop gives attendees a clear game plan to follow.

The New York Cityboot camp is just one of the several educational initiatives the Chamber of Digital Commerce produces. Most recently, the organization sponsored the boot camp at the North American Bitcoin Conference, a large annual event for bitcoin enthusiasts and professionals. The boot camps are part of the industry group’s larger goal to educate government officials, financial professionals and bitcoin startups alike.

Bitcoin exchange CEX.IO has expanded its operations to the US enabling customers in 23 states to deposit and withdraw fiat currency.

Citing Coinbase as its main competitor stateside, Helga Danova, chief editor at CEX.IO said that she was confident that they could become a "great alternative for US citizens and broaden the possibilities of buying bitcoin and trading other cryptocurrencies."

The US launch comes amid a continued pivot away from mining services. The company halted its cloud mining operations in January citing bitcoin's declining price as a motivating factor.

Named after an ancient Roman Goddess, MonetaGo is looking to provide liquidity to Bitcoin exchanges in 35 countries around the world, with the goal to expand to 50 by the end of the year.

“We want to be the umbrella to the other exchanges,” Margaux Avedisian, co-founder and business development officer, told Bitcoin Magazine at Inside Bitcoins New York.

Whereas other exchanges launch in one country and look to sign up consumer traders, MonetaGo aims to connect all of these exchanges together to increase liquidity for them all. Further, MonetaGo allows trades to be settled in multiple currencies. This is possible because the company is built using the AlphaPoint trading platform, a company that Avedisian launched in 2013.

Jesse Chenard, CEO and co-founder, offered the following example: “If someone wanted to buy $100 worth of bitcoin on a U.S. exchange, but there was only $50 in available bitcoin, the trade couldn’t occur. MonetaGo would connect that trade to another exchange that also had $50 in available bitcoin, allowing the trade to go through.”

Chenard has experience taking small ideas and making them large. He is the founder of Tremor Video, which had its initial public offering in 2013. The rest of the founding team is composed of the former Creative Director at NASDAQ, one of the co-founders of igot, the president of the Bitcoin Association of Hong Kong, and Avedisian.

The company is in beta and is privately funded. While based in New York City, the company isn’t expanding into the United States yet.

“The regulation is still too uncertain in the United States,” Chenard explained.

The Coming Consolidation of Exchanges

The launch of another exchange begs the question: Does the ecosystem actually need another one?

Chenard doesn’t see it being a problem for MonetaGo because they view their company as more business-to-business, targeting the other exchanges. But he does agree that there will be consolidation in the industry over the next year and a half.

“If you look at some of these countries, they might have four or five different exchanges that are operational. You have one that is by and far the leader, you might have another that has some volume, but the remaining two or three really have no volume,” Chenard explained. “While they might have really great products, they just can’t get the volume to compete. These will either be acquired because of their products or they will be able to work through our exchange to gain that volume.”

Where’s Wall Street?

Liquidity is one of the reasons Wall Street has had to stay out of the sector. The amount of money Wall Street is looking to move is significantly greater than what is available on the exchanges.

According to Chenard, though, it’s a lack of understanding that has kept Wall Street from getting into bitcoin. “They’ve likely heard of bitcoin, but you ask them too much about it and they just don’t really understand,” he said.

On top of that, there is fear of bitcoin going away. “So many businesses have shut down over the years, taking their consumers’ bitcoin with them, that there is fear for a lot of Wall Street,” he said.

Fundamentally, until Wall Street understands the state of the asset and are certain their money won’t disappear, the large money firms are going to hang out on the side. Bitcoin just isn’t worth it for traders looking to move $50 million a day, Chenard said.

XBT Provider AB announced today the authorization of Bitcoin Tracker One, the first bitcoin-based security available on a regulated exchange, Bloombergreports.

Bitcoin Tracker One is an “Exchange Traded Note” (ETN) designed to provide investors with convenient access to the returns of the underlying asset, U.S. dollar (USD) per bitcoin, less investor fees. Bitcoin Tracker One is authorized by Sweden’s financial supervisory authority, and will be admitted to trading on Nasdaq Stockholm. The average dollar exchange rate of bitcoin from the most liquid exchanges provides the underlying reference price. The first day of trading is expected to be May 18th, 2015.

“We are proud to offer the world’s first “Bitcoin tracker” to be traded on a regulated exchange,” said Alexander Marsh, Chief Executive Officer of XBT Provider. “By enabling this easy and secure way to invest in Bitcoin we hope to have eliminated the boundaries that earlier prevented individuals and companies from being able to actively invest in what we believe to be the future of money.”

“These are exciting times for the Bitcoin ecosystem,” said Board member Staffan Helgesson. “Bitcoin Tracker One will be the world’s first financial instrument that provides consumers and institutions the possibility to invest in bitcoins without holding coins themselves.”

The Bitcoin Tracker One Prospectus, which has been approved by the Swedish FSA, currently is available only in Swedish. XTB Provider AB will hedge all sales of the bitcoin-traded note by buying an equal value in the bitcoin market. A spokesperson for Nasdaq confirmed to CoinDesk that XBT Provider had been approved as a certificate issuer and that its product was the first bitcoin-based item to be listed on the Swedish exchange.

The XBT Provider website states that the company is aiming to attract additional liquidity providers to the order book going forward to complement the natural flow of orders. The goal is offering a liquid market with a small spread, making the instrument attractive for all type of investors.

Bitcoin Tracker One is the latest addition to the growing number of bitcoin investment vehicles that aim to expand bitcoin investments beyond the volatile spot exchanges and attract traditional investors who prefer not to trade bitcoin as currency because they are scared by bitcoin’s wild price swings. Bitcoin Tracker One could become an interesting option for those traditional investors who are persuaded that the dollar exchange rate of bitcoin will rise in the mid- and long term, but prefer not to hold bitcoin directly.

Other similar bitcoin investment vehicles are Barry Silbert’s Bitcoin Investment Trust (BIT), which received formal approval for listing on the OTC Markets Group’s OTCQX exchange with the symbol GBTC, and the upcoming Winklevoss Bitcoin Trust ETF (Exchange Traded Fund), which will be available to investors on NASDAQ with the ticker COIN.

XBT Provider AB (publ) is a public limited liability company formed in Sweden and incorporated under Swedish law, with statutory seat in Stockholm. The XBT Provider website states that the company is backed and guaranteed by KnCGroup, a bitcoin mining hardware manufacturer and service provider that has been targeted by a recent class action lawsuit.

Fidor Bank, the innovative German bank that is bringing Bitcoin and digital fintech to mainstream banking, is now operating in Great Britain.

Fidor Bank, one of the world’s most innovative banks disrupting the traditional banking sector, has been recognized by the World Economic Forum as a “Global Growth Company.”

Founded in Germany in 2009, Fidor Bank offers a new approach to financial services.

“Traditional banks do not reflect their customers’ needs in the digital age,” notes the Fidor Bank UK website. “Customer requirements are not being met by traditional banks because of lack of innovation, increasing the distance between banks and their customers.”

A key feature of Fidor Bank is its community site, where users and representatives of the bank discuss the financial services provided by the bank in an open forum. The Fidor Bank community has become one of the most active financial communities in Germany, where more than 250,000 users, bank employees and board members engage in discussions around the clock. Of course, Fidor Bank UK has also a Facebook page.

The Fidor Bank Community Product Reviews section offers a free overview of the advantages and disadvantages of a wide range of financial products. Product reviews are completely independent and consist solely of the views of community members, with feedback from the bank.

Fidor Bank Community members develop reputation and “karma” points, and can join interest groups. The most popular interest group is dedicated to cryptocurrencies. This is not surprising, because Fidor Bank is popular among Bitcoin users and considered as the most Bitcoin-friendly mainstream bank. In October, Fidor Bank partnered with bitcoin exchange Kraken to create the world’s first cryptocurrency bank.

In February, the bank announced a “Bitcoin Express” option for German customers to buy and sell bitcoin instantly on the bitcoin.de partner exchange. Holders of a “Fidor Smart Giro Account” can purchase bitcoin directly from their bank accounts and receive bitcoin immediately after the purchase. They can also sell bitcoin to another Smart Giro Account holder and have the money instantly credited to their accounts. The Smart Giro Account is a full bank account with all the standard features, including interest on credit balances and a low-cost credit card. The latter is, in practice, equivalent to a card that can be recharged with bitcoin.

Similar services might soon be made available to customers in the U.K. as well.

Commenting on the recent launch of Coinbase in the U.K., The Financial Timesnoted that Great Britain is on its way to becoming a global hub for bitcoin and digital currencies, with both the government and Bank of England having made recent moves designed to stimulate the development of digital fintech.

Credit unions may one day find some of their core functions replicated by bitcoin, a new report suggests.

According to Mercator Advisory Group, a global consultancy for the payments industry, such an evolution would only occur should bitcoin's market volatility lessen and security mechanisms develop further.

The report, entitled Understanding Bitcoin’s Implications for Credit Unions, largely serves as a vehicle for understanding the fundamentals of bitcoin and its distributed ledger, the blockchain.

As part of a newly published roadmap for the Bitcoin Foundation, executive director Bruce Fenton has suggested removing bitcoin creator Satoshi Nakamoto as a founding member.

Though he called for the removal of all founding members from the organisation, Fenton singled out Nakamoto's inclusion as "not accurate", arguing that he or she was never involved in the group's creation.

The Boston-based company drew support from Goldman Sachs and China-based IDG Capital Partners, as well as all of Circle’s pool of existing investors, including Breyer Capital, General Catalyst Partners and Accel Partners.

Tom Jessop, managing director at Goldman Sachs’ Principal Strategic Investments Group, said the bank recognizes the need to invest in companies that "have the promise to transform global markets through technical innovation.”

On Saturday, April 18, 2015, I attended the Bitcoin Consumer Fair in Atlanta, Georgia. The conference offered two different attendance tracks. Track 1 focused on the consumer. Track 2 focused on business issues. Presentations were given by several members of the Bitcoin community.

First, is a panel discussion with Eric Martindale of BitPay, Dmitry Murashchik of MyCelium, and Shawn Wilkinson of Storj.io. This panel was moderated by Stan Johnson. They explore several aspects and issues within the Bitcoin ecosystem.

Adella Toulon-Foerster is the Vice President of Coin Outlet, a distributor of Bitcoin ATMs focusing on the needs of the under banked.

Eric Martindale returns to talk about a history of BitPay and their new multi signature solution called CoinPay.

Tony Sakich is the Marketing Director of Augur, a decentralized prediction market. In his presentation his talks about his background, music, and Argur.

Kevin McGee is the CEO of Avid Entrepreneurs. His company helps first generation entrepreneurs builds better business. He discusses the benefits of Bitcoin in the microfinance industry.

Content for this episode was provided by Eric Martindale, Dmitry Murashchik, Shawn Wilkinson, Adella Toulon-Foerster, Tony Sakich, Kevin McGee, and Stan Johnson. The episode was recorded and edited by Michael Pair. The music was provided by Michael Pair. The LTB Magic word for this episode is '˜Atlanta'.

For information about the presenters, see the show notes for more details.

Bitcoin Shop (BTCS) and Spondoolies-Tech have signed an agreement that would find the publicly traded bitcoin services firm and the Israeli mining hardware manufacturer merging and continuing under a united brand.

The result, according to BTCS CEO Charles Allen, amounts to a "merger of equals", one that he believes positions BTCS to become a mining operation that could compete against established industrial outlets such as BitFury and KnCMiner.

In interview, Allen elaborated on the merger as well as the company's recent movements in the mining space, which have included securing an 83,000-foot facility and the prior purchase of 550 Th/s of mining hardware from Spondoolies-Tech.

Investors are increasing the pressure to acquire shares of the Bitcoin Investment Trust (GBTC) with a bid for 5,000 at $35 per share by the Maxim Group. Self-described as a full-service investment bank and wealth management firm, Maxim has taken the most aggressive approach as of yet to get investors in GBTC to sell their shares.

In the beginning of April, trading began for shares of the Bitcoin Investment Trust, one of the products rolled out by Barry Silbert’s new Grayscale Investments. Despite the fact that trading was possible, none have been executed.

The rules put forth by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) stated that only those who have held shares in BIT for longer than a year will have the option to sell their shares on the OTCQX exchange.

There has been concern that few investors would be willing to liquidate their positions because it would be at a significant loss. Considering the rule of one year, if an investor were to have bought shares on April 1, 2014, he or she would have bought with the value of a bitcoin at $481.20. Each share of GBTC is equal to roughly 0.1 bitcoin; therefore, a bid of $35 per share is only equal to $350 per bitcoin.

This is significant premium over the current price of bitcoin, but it still at least $130 per bitcoin less than what an investor who is allowed to liquidate would have paid. However, BIT launched in September 2013, when the price of bitcoin was $130 per coin, so there could be investors looking to sell.

At present, the other firms that have made bids to acquire shares of GBTC are Puma Capital, bidding for 100 shares at $38 per share, Canaccord Genuity, bidding for 100 shares at $37.50 per share, Citadel Securities, bidding for 100 shares at $36 per share, and KCG Americas, bidding for 100 shares at $35.55 a share.

Coinbase announced the expansion of Coinbase services to the United Kingdom, including the ability to trade bitcoin on the Coinbase Exchange and to buy/sell bitcoin with British pounds (GBP) using the Coinbase Wallet, and the addition of BTC/GBP and BTC/EUR currency pairs on Coinbase Exchange for U.K. users.

Besides the United Kingdom, Coinbase services are also available to other European Union residents.

The move brings Coinbase into the competitive British market, which co-founder Fred Ehrsam argues is buoyed by the forward-looking attitude of U.K. regulators toward Bitcoin, as well as other financial technology innovations, The Guardianreports.

“The payments regulators and the Treasury are taking a very balanced view of bitcoin,” said Ehrsam. “They’re really taking their time to understand the core technology prior to regulating.”

“I’d definitely say that regulation is more favorable in the U.K. right now,” CEO Brian Armstrong toldTechCrunch. “I have to give a lot of credit to U.K. regulators. They’ve actually been very forward-thinking about bitcoin.”

Armstrong hinted that the exchange might be the most revenue-rich part of the business in Great Britain for a while to come. Coinbase is divided into three pillars between a consumer wallet, a platform with APIs for developers and an exchange where investors can trade bitcoin against the major currencies.

The Guardiannotes that Coinbase is one of a small group of companies attempting to “sanitize” bitcoin, ridding it of many of the negative connotations. In January, investors, including three of the world’s most respected financial institutions – The New York Stock Exchange, a subsidiary of USAA, and BBVA (NYSE:BBVA) Ventures – invested $75 million in Coinbase, bringing its total capital to $106 million.

“With this investment, we are tapping into a new asset class by teaming up with a leading platform that is bringing transparency, security and confidence to an important growth market,” said NYSE President Tom Farley. “We look forward to supporting Coinbase’s growth utilizing our global distribution capabilities and market expertise.”

The Coinbase exchange launched in January in the United States, and according to Ehrsam, “quickly rose to be the most liquid Bitcoin exchange in the U.S.”

The Financial Timesnotes that the Coinbase launch in Great Britain is a boost to plans to transform the U.K. into a global hub for bitcoin and digital currencies, with both the government and Bank of England having made recent moves designed to stimulate the development of digital fintech in the United Kingdom.

For European users, it’s good to have a solid alternative to Bistamp – not because Bistamp’s service is not satisfying, but because having more options to choose from is always good. A test revealed that opening and using a new Coinbase account is quick and easy for European Union residents in Great Britain.

After completing email verification, identity verification and phone verification (for two-factor authentication), new customers can start using their Coinbase wallet for bitcoin and euro, and buy or sell bitcoin using the integrated Coinbase exchange.

The Coinbase wallet can be funded with bitcoin deposits, or with euro deposits sent via Single Euro Payments Area (SEPA) transfer from any E.U. bank. According to Coinbase customer service, European users can withdraw funds from their Coinbase euro wallet to their SEPA bank account, with a delay of one or two business days.

At a first glance, the Coinbase European service seems solid and professional, with a simple and intuitive web interface, a community forum for common questions and answers, and responsive customer service. Coinbase also offers a secure vault for long-term bitcoin storage offline, and is fully insured against hacking, theft or loss of customer funds.

Bitcoin Shop, one of the first Bitcoin companies quoted on the U.S. stock market, announced that it has signed a Letter of Intent to merge with Israeli Bitcoin mining hardware manufacturer Spondoolies-Tech. The Letter of Intent follows last week’s announcement that Bitcoin Shop raised $2.3 million in a venture capital funding round.

Bitcoin Shop, quoted on the OTC Market with the ticker BTCS, is based in Arlington, Virginia. Besides operating an e-commerce store which accepts a variety of digital currencies and offering a multi-signature wallet with bank-grade security, the company is the lead investor in Bitcoin ATM manufacturer Coin Outlet, and runs bitcoin mining operations in a new 83,000-square-foot facility.

The new mining facility is expected to handle more than 10 megawatts of power and up to 40,000 TH/s (terrahash per second) of mining hardware for “transaction verification” operations. (That means bitcoin mining, but with a crisp business-like aura.)

Bitcoin Shop wants to expand and consolidate its position as one of the leading players in the Bitcoin space. “We believe the sustained decline in the price of bitcoin has created tremendous opportunities for us to further expand our business and seize opportunities created from the market downturn,” said CEO Charles Allen, commenting on the latest funding round. “With the completion of this financing we believe we are well positioned to be a leading Bitcoin- and blockchain-focused company.”

The funding announcement noted that the company plans to leverage its transaction verification services business while it builds a universal digital currency platform with the goal of enabling users to engage in the digital currency ecosystem through one point of access.

The merger with Spondoolies-Tech is subject to a number of conditions, including satisfactory completion of diligence and execution of definitive agreements, and it will, therefore, probably take some time to work out the details. It’s expected that the merger will build a fully integrated transaction verification services business using Spondoolies-Tech mining technology.

Both companies believe the anticipated combination of Bitcoin Shop and Spondoolies-Tech will create the world’s first publicly traded company to produce Bitcoin transaction verification equipment.

“Our key goal in 2014 was to create the partnerships needed to build an ecosystem and start laying the foundation to put our vision into place,” said Allen. “Once completed, our merger with Spondoolies would be a significant leap forward in making this ecosystem a reality. [O]ur next objective will be to complete the development and production of a next-generation chip to drive our transaction verification services business and to generate revenue from the combination.”

Spondoolies-Tech is a digital currency hardware manufacturer. Founded in 2013 by a group of Israeli high-tech veterans, the company raised $10 million in capital from leading Israeli venture capital firms with the goal of building Bitcoin transaction-verifying servers from the bottom up, creating the infrastructure on which digital currencies will flourish.

“Over the last several months, we’ve worked closely with Charles Allen and the BTCS team to establish the nature of our potential partnership,” said Spondoolies-Tech CEO Guy Corem. “The synergy between the teams is amazing. I have the utmost of confidence that together we will build a very successful and prosperous company by growing and expanding our business beyond bitcoin mining equipment.”